Jamie Brown, from the Archant learning and development team, who is leading the series of Digital Decoded seminars. Picture: DENISE BRADLEY

Jamie Brown, from Archant’s learning and development team, explains how Digital Decoded can help SMEs navigate the mire of marketing products.

Businesses exist is a world where marketing options are a vast and mind boggling array of Facebook, SEO, content marketing, videos, websites and Instagram stories.

This list doesn't scratch the surface and it is still bafflingly complex.

I can show you 250 digital marketing brands/products that when all grouped together become something of a headache… not just the gaudy logos and stupid brand names but also the desk-bitingly wordy descriptions of what they do.

If you feel slightly sick when thinking about promoting your business you are not alone. All businesses are in the same boat; cost and effort need to be returned back in cold hard cash, every expenditure is a risk to your livelihood and wellbeing.

SIGN UP FOR THE FREE DIGITAL DECODED SESSION IN BARNSTAPLEThis message has taken a while to get through to the UK advertising industry. We have been happily navel gazing and going to meetings that should have been emails while the businesses we worked with (and for) were having a hard time with the vast volume of products we shovelled into the market.

#we get this now

#we are sorry

#can we still be friends?

You see, the answer to the marketing monster keeping you up at night probably isn't more products. It might not even be spending more money. We think the answer you are looking for might just be knowledge.

Knowledge, education and understanding are empowering things that bring calm where there was chaos, decisions where there was indecisiveness and confidence where before there was a "give it a go".

As a business we have invested time, money and significant effort in understanding the marketing environment we live in. We have data scientists here. We have SEO experts. We have world-class web developers. We have industry acclaimed writers. We have award-winning designers. We have a lot of resource and we now understand that if we want business to be our friends then we have to help with education, advice and support for free before we bring products, tools and solutions for you to buy.

So this is Digital Decoded. It is free, people found it useful last year, and it is for everyone (Archant customer and non-Archant customer) who wants to learn something about "digital marketing" and all of its colourful, oddly-named facets.

And we'll be holding two Digital Decoded sessions in Barnstaple on Wednesday, November 7, at 8.30am and 11.30am, at The Cedars Inn.

About North Devon Gazette

First published in 1856 as the Bideford Gazette, the North Devon Gazette is the free newspaper and website for the region, covering a vast area from Hartland in the west to Lynton in the east and to South Molton and Holsworthy in the south.